why you should care only dot com. this is r.t. this morning loyalist clashes shake northern ireland get again after power fast decision to fly the union flag for only eighteen days a year. government forces chase militants out of a key city with the help of french military airstrikes after president francois stated intervention in the area will continue for as long as necessary. and washington says it will resign its afghan mission to assisting local forces from the spring sparking speculation that it might be planning to keep up its military muscle in that country.

from the arctic new central moscow times kevin i would hear this with you in our top story now around a dozen police have been injured in the latest outbreak of loyalist clashes in northern ireland tensions been running high for more than a month after belfast council decided to flag fly the union flag above city hall for only eighteen days a year. in the province looks into what else is fueling the unrest as well recreational rioting that's what some people are calling it. as to being taking place all across the us in the past weeks many of them peaceful but in pockets violence breaking out in the crisis is the only other side many of them young faces covered as police come under attack with rocks and petrol bombs mark easton's the director of the east belfast mission creep is working with young

protesters to try to calm the tensions some kids are doing it for fun or doing it for more sinister motives in terms of control terms of par in terms of ego some are doing it because it's sexier than the playstation you know young girls are doing it because young girls even with young children we've seen on the streets i don't think a fully realized what their actions can result. there just. in some ways having a laugh and yet there's nothing funny about it on the surface and this has been about the decision at the beginning of december to limit the number of days the union flag flies at city hall but in what's been the most sustained outbreak of violence since the one nine hundred ninety eight good friday peace agreement and it's clear that the problems run much deeper one of the protesters here asking for just a one hour flight back up pays to get off their backs a peter robinson least you're not fool enough and he was the one that had to start

. today for the thirty's and they fought for us to come out on the street to protest against their land and nice back to save maybe take all the flak. rubbish and. you know but when he wanted also to on the streets for his own actions we can make for do you think the protesters would accept any kind of compromise when it comes to this when the flag of the flag turned out said. we know we're not going to get. action because the majority. any unionist horns now to try to reengage politically but we're told much more will need to be done they'll be no quick fixes here. i think there's a different.

one hundred people arrested more than sixty police officers injured and millions of pounds spent in policing these riots and in lost business revenue they these riots have been highly localized the damage has already been far reaching this is a new generation bringing violence back on to the streets of belfast it's a far cry from the darker days of northern ireland's conflict that doesn't make it any less troubling. r.t. belfast. germans for the christian science monitor told me that the unrest is being flared up by the changing demographics. ship despite the protests have no such as the ulster people's form no one is entirely sure exactly what it is

that the protesters want northern ireland in general and belfast in particular have traditionally been protestant unionist loyalist or if you like to areas the recent census results should be northern ireland no longer has a unionist one it's more sort of fifty fifty situation i mean what can city hall do is got itself into a real rock and a hard place isn't it if they overturn the decision it's going to look like more brawls take it over the potentially cause a flare up on the other side this stuff going to get over this counter they certainly can't undo the decision. first or it's deep highly unlikely that irish nationalists concerts would vote to raise the flag and second of all even if they could be convinced to do so in the name of public order i think it would look very bad for the council to. convert to block don't use violence so what's your prognosis which way it's going to go you know over the coming months is it going to come it was a going to go from bad to worse it's very difficult to say just today. if not

actually do you get drawn into the into the wrong going to get much much worse. obviously also a suspect device a. viable small explosive. it's not yet clear. but these are not good signs the french pilots being killed in fighting in mali were friends continues to launch air strikes against islamist militants in the west african state it comes after monday's government troops chased rebels out of the key central town of qana aided by the french military the un security council called for a speedy deployment of international forces to back all of our bills who would see the north of the country last a woman since made significant advances president a lot of dance on friday that the intervention in mali would quote last as long as necessary from space independent journalist robert believes that french foreign policy though contradicts itself. i think that there's a lot now as the french people aren't too bothered by the consequences of this sort

of intervention they generally favorite has a great military tradition in france and they've grown accustomed to interfering other people's countries but if you if the minute it starts to get nasty i think you'll find they'll be a very quick a reversal of public opinion these sort of islamist extremists they're very tough soldiers and they've grown tougher over the last twenty years and if france starts to find that these people have been armed as a result of the intervention in libya and all the arms of the swilling about in the in the sahara as a result of that intervention ironically instigated by france then they're going to find it's a very dangerous place to intervene in mali has requested help and they get it instantly when the central african republic requested help from the french forces there they were told are no we can't interfere to tell any particular regime were neutral. it to do even if you had wanted to destroy the

credibility of france and the western countries over the last five or ten years you couldn't have done a better job by the absurd contradictions of what they do america is to leave local forces in charge of combat operations in afghanistan and switch to a support role this spring the announcement came from u.s. president barack obama after a round of talks with his afghan counterpart on what's being hailed as the last chapter know of the u.s. afghan mission but has got it if you can report american involvement in the country does look set to rumble on. during his election campaign president obama may have sounded very resolute to leave afghanistan in two thousand and fourteen but the white house is now negotiating terms to stay there the president said if u.s. forces stayed their role will be different but critics argue it's an attempt to rebrand a military presence which both the majority of americans and afghans popes take a listen to what president obama said about the mission after twenty fourteen i

think. you know although obviously we're still. two years away. i can say with assurance that this is a very different mission. and a very different task and a very different one and for the u.s. if we're able to come to an appropriate agreement now one of the key points of the agreement that the president mentioned there on that key point probably is immunity from prosecution for u.s. troops so that the afghans cannot prosecute any american and that's the deal that the white house couldn't get from the iraqi government the u.s. wanted to keep some troops there but couldn't because of how. allowing the u.s. to further operate there with impunity but with homemade karzai it could be different he indicated that he is willing to give that immunity and that he's willing to bourg it besides he knows that he's in power because of the americans and many experts believe his government will collapse in no time after americans

leave but whatever post twenty fourteen deal comes out of their negotiations it might not be easy for washington to sell it to the american people because despite the administration trying to present of ghana stand as a success story in many ways they see it as a failure and don't understand why their troops should stay any further policymakers in washington can't really come out and say that they don't want to walk away and just just pack up and leave from such an important geopolitical position now that they've spent billions and billions of dollars to have a presence there but such joe political calculations may not sound very appealing to the american people at a time when the country's head over heels in debt well he's been hearing how despite this like his announcement the afghan government's in no position to droll . and it sort of caught in a paradox it didn't want to give up afghanistan it wanted to use it as a strategic base but can't win

a military victory they have to begin to draw down whether they will leave completely i don't think so so now you have cars i hear in washington meeting with obama he is extremely vulnerable but he is seen within the afghan population as nothing but an extension of the power of the occupiers and the afghan people like all occupied people resent the occupiers and they resent those who are there collaborators so karzai i from time to time sounds like a nationalist he stands up any how is a little bit against american atrocities and again trying to play for domestic consumption but at the end of the day karzai is seen as just that as a collaborator with the occupation a very rich collaborator so he may have a way an exit plan of the jonah scripted out but i think he knows that without foreign occupation his government's days are very very precarious. well now that the afghan president's so washington trip is done and dusted. for

this people in new york what they think of the country's campaign enough gotta stop . you all but here it's because of the wonderful oil. money the views of the decade long invasion from the streets of the big. bit later in the program and also find out if the prime minister's support can salvage the u.k.'s struggling. is another story got lined up for you just ahead. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you . are welcome to the big picture.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. crumbling roads and bridges and a flickering electrical grid america's infrastructure is creaking and it's becoming

a big problem even though mother nature has played a hand in wrecking supplies recently the government those earmarking money for most anything other than energy as found out for us over the past decade america has spent hundreds of billions in the name of national security wars military intervention fighting terrorist and hunting online hackers meantime getting much less attention is a domestic danger lurking in and lighting up every corner of the country the u.s. power grid in recent months federal officials have warned that america's electric cables substations and transformers are not sufficiently secured and are vulnerable to attack by anyone with a weapon and some basic know how experts say the energy grid is also outdated and antiquated unable to prevent outages from cascading in october superstorm sandy hit

twenty four states causing some sixty three billion dollars in damage more than four and a half million people lost power and new york was left by a massive floods south of the big apple plunged into darkness off of. two months after the storm the streets of downtown manhattan remain clogged with tubes wires and heavy equipment because dozens of the city's iconic skyscrapers still rely on generators for power things like this going to show months when major buildings bought. that does not occur in hong kong in shanghai. because they have built systems designed to deal with the reality of nature so what is this kind corners feeling to invest in you know most of you reckon economy when it comes to america's electricity ninety percent of the grid is privately owned by utility companies beholden to investors. energy sector in the

united states is law actually. operated and took her. there for only by regulation own the federal government and then that line it regulation to state and local governments. possible to haul. the grids to gather that he is saying there are many reasons not only financial but also policy reasons really changes have to come about if we want to change our safety and livelihood the changes aren't just limited to the grid engineers have warned that many of america's bridges roads dams levees and power plants are in

danger of crumbling if not repaired especially as sea levels continue rising even one bomb doesn't nothing compared to what hurricane sandy did across the northeast a thousand miles of destruction there was a very very big natural event. you know to have congress not funding the. repair of the basic industry infrastructure. is just staggering shortsighted a broken foundation that risks the chance of becoming the nation's biggest homegrown danger very important i.r.t. new york. on our website to our to the com hundreds of aboriginal rights activists who staged a mass rally in canada pledging to bring the country's economy to its knees even read up more about that plenty there about it for you and rage to the flow of the economy it appears some greeks of declared war now in the mainstream media why are they venting their anger over media you can find out from us. for the first time in

george's modern history the country's lawmakers overturned president psycho's release veto would set free two hundred political prisoners. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says stopping iran from making a nuclear bomb will be his top priority if he wins the upcoming parliamentary vote the threat of an attack seems so real in fact to many israelis that they're already snapping up gas masks and renovating bomb shelters as artie's paullus lee has been discovering. mushroom clouds confusion hysteria this is israel's last day according to a young filmmaker who wants to shock his country into taking action i've created this to share my thoughts and my fears with the world about the potential threat that is coming from iran if you ask me this same question two years ago. that people don't think about it so much but today it is different we can see that

the majority here of israel are preparing this i think most. mentally mornings grandparents are holocaust survivors from a mania a foreshadow he fears of what could come in talk hitler six serious to and it will take. all six minutes that's why and maybe some or many israelis are really uneasy fearing iran might be building a nuclear bomb and terror around isn't mincing its words threatening tel aviv it will teach it a listen if it tries to attack first warning is waning and missiles will make sure israel does not survive the center of israel is a problem and that's where we have to move forward not only that we haven't got enough voters it's very very populated so everything that is falling in this area can cause casualties in two thousand and six during the second lebanon war rachel

balmer oars and her family hit here from the katyusha rockets raining down from across the border she never imagined she'd be restocking her shelter again so soon and for potentially more deadly consequences of course i'm afraid from the war from within iran because nobody wants war and peace. and now i have also some rain children five grandchildren and i'm afraid i'm afraid because my cells will go to the army there are soldiers in the. i don't want it the recent war with gaza was a chance for tel aviv to test its iron dome missile defense system but these radios are anxious in part because of widespread media coverage of just how unprepared for war the country is many bomb shelters and residential buildings are rundown and neglected or have become furniture storage rooms while most of israel's arab

citizens about to twenty percent of the population lack shelters altogether as the chances of war start looking all too real the army says four times as many israelis are collecting state funded gas masks than they were several months ago i'm a big concern it's not like i think they're going to be aware of. just. the side my here just in case and with impending doomsday predictions. to be caught unprepared police fear r.t. television. british clothing manufacturers are calling for support from the prime minister and government amid growing concerns over the lack of products made in the u.k. but with more and more clothing being imported from overseas that task could prove tricky authorities will smith for board it's got the british flag on it but all these clothes made in britain a quick look at the label shows they're not made in china or made in vietnam

anywhere but here and down on the high street the stories no different you'd be hard pushed to find anything with a made in britain label on it in. surveyed by a daily mail journalist found just one item in sixty three with a british made label but now david cameron and his ministers are being urged to back british from their hats to their socks and wear only british made clothes it's not impossible there are companies that still make clothes in the u.k. including the firm that's doing the urging private white p.c. but the vast majority of what we were ninety percent at the last count and including everything i'm wearing today is made abroad since two thousand and fifty two percent of jobs in the textile industry have disappeared and we imported twelve and a half billion pounds worth more clothing than we export it last year even some companies

that trade on their very british n'est don't manufacture here so even if david cameron and his colleagues did pledge only to buy british it's unlikely to revive britain's ailing textile industry source with as washington be bluffing about the troop withdrawal from afghanistan than was the entire mission justified in the first place big questions try to get the bigger on the streets of new yorkers artie's resident. the obama administration has recently said that it's considering having no troops in afghanistan after just sembler of two thousand and fourteen is that a good thing a bad thing or a totally made up thing designed for political shenanigans this week let's talk about bet do you even think he's going to do it he said that two years ago and it

didn't happen so i don't buy it so why does he keep saying it if he doesn't mean it . to get people like and their families will be happy with hopefully you know you finish what you started what did we start and what do we have to finish what is finishing mean. to capture or. do you think that we've defined what and it's tough because you know we don't know everything i think we need to have a world presence to maintain the mockers why is it up to us to maintain a world presence why don't we just get out of everyone's business well that's a good idea too but if no if we don't do it nobody will and otherwise the world's going to go to war and we were in his stabilizing factor and until now and time it's been us but we're the ones causing all the wars. it depends on your perspective i guess i'm sort board more defending than attacking but don't you think that there are some people in the world that feel like america imposes its

will on their countries yes but america's will lose its freedom and democracy at its heart it's not a fanatical you don't think it's its own might be money and imperialism a little bit too i don't believe that it is imperialism. and what about money do you think that money might drive some of our reasons for most of course but money is going to help everybody i don't think it's happening i i just came back from afghanistan so oh so you don't believe he's really going to pull the troops away. entirely i think that i think that there are presence there is important and this war sustaining what we've done so far. the reason we are over there is because of the wonderful oil and i don't have it's all about money and. that's the marina that want to put your life on the line doesn't that. makes me really upset because we have a lot of marines that are dying each and every day in afghanistan you know and you

know for god's sakes i can be next you know so it does make me pretty upset that he's promising something that he's not owning up to the bottom line is we're so used to having u.s. troops all over the world up in everyone's business that we probably can't imagine us pulling out of anywhere and that makes americans the world's bullies whether we like it or not. coming up after the break laura lister discusses whether the u.s. can fix its budget problems in this edition a capital account summit show aarti. because

of recent events guns have a become a big issue all over the usa both sides are throwing their talking point ammunition back and forth and we hear a lot of conflicting stories well in australia they got tough on guns and crime went down but then again others say in the u.k. they got rid of all their guns and all hell broke loose i've heard stories that you are way more likely to be killed by a deer in your headlights than get taken out by a maniac with a tech nine but then again i've heard that soon deaths from guns will exceed even deaths from car accidents japan is safe because it has no guns but switzerland is even safer because automatic weapons are all over the place the information is all very contradictory but ultimately it doesn't matter what facts and reports you throw at the other side the gun question is a philosophical one some people would rather at least feel like they have their fate in their own hands even if there is a chance they will shoot their own dog in the middle of the night and other people

are so concerned with safety and are so full of fear for their fellow man that they'd rather disarm everyone and leave all the weapons in the hands of the criminals who have them legal or not anyways and in the hands of the government who was seems pretty happy to use force at home and abroad i don't know i'd rather risk the unpredictable actions of some idiots out there in society but at least have the ability defend myself and have some control over my life in a means to resist oppression but that's just my opinion. good afternoon of the capital account i'm lauren mr here in washington d.c. these are your headlines for thursday december twentieth two thousand and twelve in the us that is the fiscal cliff approaches reuters reports republicans are aiming to vote today in the house on a plan which obama promptly says he would veto meanwhile this has warned the u.s.

could lose its aaa credit rating if washington doesn't get a deal to treat what we call economy i know this may all feel like deja. and maybe it will all turn out fine maybe it won't though where do you want to place your bets we'll talk to the daily reckonings eric bryant and joe bowman about their choices plus a german study finds paying taxes has a positive impact on a person's subjective well being no word on what the findings would bring in the west but if you aren't. you feel like your quality of life is on the up and up state side will talk about some other economic options and the opec of maple syrup has been robbed millions of dollars worth of the hot commodity has been stolen from canada's maple syrup cartel yes cartel i said maple syrup cartel and those are not my words that's according to the new york times we'll talk about it in loose change let's get to today's capital account.